Auto travel trouble sign

ABSTRACT

Sign means including a plastic sign plate emboss formed of thin sheet plastic and having raised luminescent lettering forming a word for communicating a message of distress or information. The sign means includes a permanent magnet strip fixed to the backside of the sign plate for temporary attachment thereof to the exterior surface of a wrecked or stalled automobile on a highway or thoroughfare.

United States Patent Carroll et al.

[451 June 20, 1972 [54] AUTO TRAVEL TROUBLE SIGN [72] Inventors: JohnRobert Carroll, 332 Arlington; John Michael Kiniry, 107 Maple Drive,both of Satellite Beach; Anthony Finazzo, 108 Snead Road, Indian HarbourBeach, all of Fla. 32935 [22] Filed: June 29, 1970 [21] Appl. No; 50,680

[52] U.S. Cl. ..40/129 C [51] Int. Cl. ..G09f 7/00 [58] Field of Search...40/2, 136,135, 129 C, 142 A, 40/125 F, 134

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,446,241 2/1923 Armstrong..40/ 134 2,588,183 3/1952 Vigon ..40/134 FOREIGN PATENTS ORAPPLICATIONS 612,988 1/196] Canada ..40/134 66,440 3/1948 Denmark ..40/l 34 760,224 1 2/1 933 France 40/ 134 Primary Examiner-Robert W. MichellAssistant ExaminerWenceslao J. Contreras Attorney-John Cyril Malloy [57] ABSTRACT Sign means including a plastic sign plate emboss formed ofthin sheet plastic and having raised luminescent lettering fonning aword for communicating a message of distress or information. The signmeans includes a permanent magnet strip fixed to the backside of thesign plate for temporary attachment thereof to the exterior surface of awrecked or stalled automobile on a highway or thoroughfare.

1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figures INVENTOR. JOHN KOBERT CARROLL JOHN MIC/M51.KIN/RY y ANTHONY F/Al/qzzo AUTO TRAVEL TROUBLE SIGN DESCRIPTION OF THEPRIOR ART Various sign devices have heretofore been designed for use bya motorist in a stalled vehicle for warning or apprising passingmotorists of an unsafe highway condition or in seeking assistance in therepair of a stalled vehicle. Certain problems are noted in theconstruction and use of these prior art devices: They may be of awkwarddesign and fabrication caus' ing problems in storage or conveyance in anautomobile when not in use; the prior art sign means may be of complexconfiguration and be difi'rcult to use and to attach to or remove fromthe automobile.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The instant invention is substantially ofmechanically simple design and construction. It is easy to use; it maybe quickly and easily attached to or removed from the exterior surfaceof an automobile by magnetic attachment means. It is versatile in useand may be applied to substantially any automobile body; it may bereadily applied to substantially any location on the body and in aprominent location readily visible to passing motorists. The sign meansis easy to store or package and may be magnetically attached to theinterior of the automobile trunk or the engine compartment of theautomobile when not in use; it may be conveniently carried in theautomobile. If desired, it may be formed with advertising indicia forsales promotion or advertising a particular product or service. The signmeans is of substantially durable construction and of simple designfacilitating economical manufacture and marketing or distribution as agive-away item.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is an environmental view of thesign means of the instant invention, showing it attached to the rearsection of an automobile;

FIG. 2 is a front face view of the sign means;

FIG. 3 is a rear face view thereof; and

FIG. 4 is a vertical plane sectional view taken as on the line 4-4 ofFIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The sign means of the instantinvention is indicated by numeral 12 and is shown and described inconjunction with an automobile A (partially shown in FIG. 1). The signmeans 12 includes an equilateral triangular sign plate 14, a recognizeddistress signal, formed of thin sheet plastic material of semirigidcharacter. The sign plate 14 is press formed or emboss formed anddefines a generally planar background area 16, a series of letter areas18 protruding forwardly of the background 16, and a border area 20bounding the triangular background area 16 and in relief, protrudinguniformly forwardly of the background area. i

The means for removably attaching the sign plate to the automobile Aincludes a permanent magnet 22 fixedly secured centrally to the backsurface of the sign plate 14; adhesive means 24 are provided for themagnet interposed between mating surfaces to secure the strip-formmagnet 22 on the back surface of the sign plate. The sign means 12 ismagnetically secured to a desired location on the automobile by engagingthe outer exposed surface 26 of the magnet strip 22 with the exteriormetal surface of the automobile.

The series of letter areas 18 or the embossed lettering formed in thethin sheet plastic sign plate structure may compose any word or phrasefor communicating an intelligible message, as for example, the lettersmay be H-E-L-P, as shown in the drawings. The forward face surfaces ofthe series of letter areas 18 and the forward face surface of thetriangular border area 20, which preferably are embossed, are coatedwith bright luminescent substance of high light reflecting property. Theletter areas 18 and border areas 20 preferably are coated withfluorescent material for high contrast and vividness in day or night useof the sign device.

Advertising or indicia means 28 may also be formed on the sign plate 14for a trademark display advertising the product or services of acommercial or industrial enterprise. The advertising means 28 may beemboss formed forwardly of the planar background 16 of the sign plate14, and if desired may be painted or otherwise coated with color forcontrast and vividness.

In a preferred embodiment, the sign is molded and is of substantiallyrigid, yet somewhat pliable plastic material of a thickness, which isthin for signs of such material, that is of between one-thirty-secondsand one-sixteenths inch, and with the over-all area being of a height ofat least about 8 to 10 inches and the base being of about 10 to 12inches. Preferably, the material of the sign is polypropylene of theclass which does not substantially soften except about F. In thispreferred embodiment, the apex areas, such as at 31, are blunted toavoid breakage of the same. Also, the outer edges are slightly flaredalong the return side of the embossed boundary zone of the preferredembodiment, as indicated at 30, to reinforce the edge and to define arounded outer edge to resist cracks, or stress risers. The sheet formsign of the preferred size is rigidified by means of the embossedletters, defining a rigidfying pattern in the relatively large messagebearing base zone area 32 of the sign, that is the area just above baseline 34. Above this reinforced base zone area 32, there remains arelatively small triangular display area 36 which may be employed by thesupplier of the distress sign to display the trademark, preferably to beembossed thereupon, such as the Gulf trademark, which also serves torigidify this area in the preferred embodiment. The central zone 38intermediate the base area 32 and display area 36 provides the area 38for the attachment of the magnet means which is secured thereto as setforth above, that is in the flat unreinforced intermediate zone betweenthe reinforced upper lower display and base areas and between theembossed rigidified boundary areas. It is thus seen that a light weightinexpensive disposable distress sign as provided which by reasons of thedimensions and reinforcing described and set forth herein is adapted foruse in a give-away program by oil companies and which serves the purposeof providing a needed distress sign for motorists for use as requiredalong busy expressways where there are long distances between exits andavailable help.

We claim:

1. Sign means adapted for temporary detachable mounting at anarbitrarily chosen location upon the exterior surface of an automobilestalled on a thoroughfare, said sign means being shaped triangularly forcommunicating a message of distress to motorists travelling thethoroughfare, said sign means comprising a single sign plate memberhaving front and back sides, said sign plate being emboss formed of thinsheet plastic material of uniform thickness and color and having agenerally planar background area, and a plurality of alphabetical letterareas each emboss formed and protruding forwardly of said backgroundarea, with the letter areas being arranged in a series forming a wordfor communicating an intelligible distress message and with each letterarea having a coating of bright colored luminescent substance formed onits protruding surface, and including means for temporarily detachablymounting the sign plate to the automobile exterior at such locationsthereon as is prominently visible to motorists travelling thethoroughfare including a permanent magnet mass and means fixedlysecuring said magnet mass to the back surface of said sign plate; saidsign plate being of a conventional distress signal shape constituting asubstantially equilateral triangular shape; said sign plate being embossformed peripherally and provided with a border area providingrigidifying means uniformly protruding forwardly of said planarbackground area a distance substantially the same as the protrusion ofthe letter area and with the protruding surface of said border areadefining said distress shape and having a coating of bright coloredluminescent substance the same as that of the letter; said permanentmagnet mass being in the form of a single strip of magnet materialarranged generally centrally of said sign plate; adhesive means and saidstrip of magnet material being embossed along the margins thereofproviding a border area protruding out of the main plane of the sign andthe return edge of the border area to the brink edge of the sign isflared to merge and blend with the main plane of the sign plate.

a: r m an

1. Sign means adapted for temporary detachable mounting at anarbitrarily chosen location upon the exterior surface of an automobilestalled on a thoroughfare, said sign means being shaped triangularly forcommunicating a message of distress to motorists travelling thethoroughfare, said sign means comprising a single sign plate memberhaving front and back sides, said sign plate being emboss formed of thinsheet plastic material of uniform thickness and color and having agenerally planar background area, and a plurality of alphabetical letterareas each emboss formed and protruding forwardly of said backgroundarea, with the letter areas being arranged in a series forming a wordfor communicating an intelligible distress message and with each letterarea having a coating of bright colored luminescent substance formed onits protruding surface, and including means for temporarily detachablymounting the sign plate to the automobile exterior at such locationsthereon as is prominently visible to motorists travelling thethoroughfare including a permanent magnet mass and means fixedlysecuring said magnet mass to the back surface of said sign plate; saidsign plate being of a conventional distress signal shape constituting asubstantially equilateral triangular shape; said sign plate being embossformed peripherally and provided with a border area providingrigidifying means uniformly protruding forwardly of said planarbackground area a distance substantially the same as the protrusion ofthe letter area and with the protruding surface of said border areadefining said distress shape and having a coating of bright coloredluminescent substance the same as that of the letter; said permanentmagnet mass being in the form of a single strip of magnet materialarranged generally centrally of said sign plate; adhesive means and saidstrip of magnet material being adhesively secured to the back surface ofsaid sign plate; said sign means being about 8 to 10 inches in height;said alphabetical letter areas extending upwardly from the base of saidsign to about midway of the height of the display sign providingrigidifying means for the sign and the sign plate is embossed along themargins thereof providing a border area protruding out of the main planeof the sign and the return edge of the border area to the brink edge ofthe sign is flared to merge and blend with the main plane of the signplate.